Unanimous panel says Vermont judge overstepped in immigration case
Tuesday’s ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York overturns a previous decision by a federal judge in Vermont, who had likened the government’s efforts to expel Mahdawi and other activists to McCarthyist repression. The unanimous panel found that the judge overstepped his authority by intervening in Mahdawi’s case before it had moved fully through the immigration court system.
The decision mirrors a separate appellate panel’s ruling earlier this year against Mahmoud Khalil, a former classmate of Mahdawi’s at Columbia University. Both cases involve pro-Palestinian student activists whom the Trump administration has pursued for deportation over campus protest activity.
As with the ruling against Khalil, the appeals court did not weigh in on the merits of Mahdawi’s claim that he was unconstitutionally targeted for criticizing Israel. The panel wrote that Mahdawi can seek review from the federal courts over those claims after he has exhausted his options in the immigration court system.
The administration has spent more than a year working to deport Mahdawi, a student protest organizer whose case has drawn attention alongside that of his former classmate.